WHO's Tedros warns of oxygen concentrators shortage

The world faces a shortage of oxygen concentrators as the number of worldwide cases of novel coronavirus infection nears the 10-million mark, the head of World Health Organization said.

“Many countries are now experiencing difficulties obtaining oxygen concentrators,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference on Wednesday. “Demand is currently outstripping supply.”

The coronavirus has hit 9.3 million people and killed more than 480,000 so far and is rising by about 1 million cases per week. This has pushed oxygen demand to 88,000 large cylinders per day, or 620,000 cubic meters of oxygen, Tedros said.

The sudden rise has created a dearth of oxygen concentrators needed to support breathing of COVID-19 patients suffering from respiratory distress.

The United Nations health agency has purchased 14,000 oxygen concentrators from manufacturers and plans to send them to 120 countries in coming weeks, he said. A further 170,000 concentrators — valued at some US$100 million — will be potentially available over the next six months.

The head of the WHO emergencies program Dr Mike Ryan, meanwhile, said that the pandemic in many Latin American countries was still intense as deaths in the region surpassed 100,000 this week. Many countries had experienced 25-50 percent increases in cases in the past week, he said.

“I would characterize the situation in the Americas in general as still evolving, not having reached its peak yet, and likely to result in sustained numbers of cases and continued deaths,” Ryan said.

While Tedros has pledged accountability and a post-pandemic review, Ryan said the agency was holding internal talks over its actions, including what it has learnt about controlling the virus.